Archive for the ‘Health’ Category

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Feet.

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

I’ve got flat feet. I’ve always known this. What I didn’t realize, until my podiatrist appointment the other day, was just how flat they are.

Any time a doctor uses the words “severely” and “only” in the same visit, it’s bad.

“You have severely flat feet.”

“The only thing that will help are some ortho-somethings for your shoes.”

No magic pills, no admonition to lose weight. Because anything I do won’t help. Even if I slim down, my feet, and thus the alignment of my body, will still be jacked up.

What’s worse is that my insurance won’t cover the $600 for the inserts.

And the pills I got subscribed are $94 for a months’ supply.

I want a second opinion, but even so, it looks like upgrading the aging innards of my computer will have to wait.

Posted in Health, I want my own planet | 1 Comment »

The Fat Man (doesn’t want to) Runneth

Friday, August 7th, 2009
Not mine, but you get the idea

Not my gut, but you get the idea. Picture by dotbenjamin on Flickr.

I really don’t like to exercise. I don’t make apologies for it, I don’t try to explain it, I just do.

Running, though, has a special reserved batch of hate I’m willing to throw at it whenever the subject is brought up.

I’m not a runner. And now that I’m carrying a spare tire that weighs more than my 7 year old, it looks even less appealing. The fatter I get, the less I want to run.

Yet it’s probably the only way I’m going to lose the weight.

There’s a weird thing about me that causes me to do things that are difficult. Unusually difficult. And I do them better and with more effort than things that come naturally.

For instance: It’s 11PM, it’s time for bed. I’m exhausted. I gotta get up early. So what do I do? I start cleaning the bedroom. Why? Because it’s hard and it’s the last thing I want to be doing right then.

Or the time back in Hawaii that there was a blood drive at the shipyard. I dutifully gave blood. Then I went home. Lara (my font of common sense) wasn’t there, so what did I do? Did I tell myself “dude, you’re down a pint, play some WoW?” Nope. Not me. I mowed the backyard. In the Hawaii heat. I didn’t pass out, but man, I wanted to.

The best example I have, though, actually involves running. Back in my Navy days, on our 2004 deployment to the Gulf, I had been working out with my good, dear friend Angie. For about two months, we hit the elliptical machine for an hour almost every day. During that time, I got down to 191 lbs., the lowest weight I’ve been at since high school (I’m about 240 now). We pulled into a port, and there was a ship-sponsored 5K run. The port was Jebel Ali, right outside Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. Also known as THE FRACKING DESERT. I don’t know what posessed us to do this, but Angie and I did in fact run the 5K in the desert. Sucessfully, if not speedily (though 26-27 minutes is still not bad). That was a helluva challenge. Why we stopped working out after that, I haven’t a clue.

So I think there has to be a certain amount of challenge involved for it to be worth getting off my fat ass for. I think this gut has reached the point where it will provide sufficient challenge all by itself.

Now I need some running shoes.

Posted in Friends, Health, Things I don't want to do, Working Out | 1 Comment »

Health Care Fears #spoonie

Monday, April 13th, 2009

This is all fear based. I really don’t have any reason to suspect things will turn out this way, but given that “worst case” seems to be our standard fare sometimes, I have to be prepared.

In just over a month, a wonderful thing is going to happen. My benefits will start up. My kids will be able to get sick, break bones, etc. Lara and I will be able to get medication again.

Hopefully we’ll be able to get medication again.

There is some kind of grace period between health care providers, where if it’s exceeded under certain circumstances, a condition (like Lara’s lupus) would not be covered for a time when benefits start again. This is what I fear. Because we can’t (nobody can) afford to pay full price for a doctor or medications if the insurance company decides not to cover us.

If that happens. God forbid that happens, I will leverage the powers of the internets to rain fire, brimstone, and LOLcats on the insurance company. And any politician who won’t help will become the target of my ire, immortalized on the internet as the coward they are.

Every last one of them claims to want to reform health care. My family is hurdling headlong into needing that reform to happen. Lets see them put action to their words.

Oh, and frankly, if you’ve “dealt with this” and think “they don’t care, they’ll never do anything,” then thank you kindly for your opinion. Now shut the fuck up, because I really, REALLY don’t want to hear it. Your bellyaching is not only depressing, but totally fucking counterproductive. I’m sorry for the garbage you’ve been through. You’ve given up your fight. That’s your right.

Mine’s just started, and if you don’t want to walk beside me, get the fuck out of the way or I’ll steamroll you.

Uh… Sorry bout that last part. That was not directed at anyone who actually reads this, but I needed to vent. Hey, iz mah blog, right?

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Posted in Fail, Family, Health | 1 Comment »

The Unfairness of Illness #lupus #spoonie

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

“It’s not fair.”

Over the last 27 years of my life (all of it), I’ve heard that phrase uttered many times. Usually, it is a childish response to a perceived slight, real or imagined. Sometimes it’s due to a self-induced comparison of the life situations of different people, usually with the one declaring the unfairness taking the stance of the “victim.” Other times, it’s a commentary on the way the world works, a natural response to something beyond our control.

I believe that the most unfair presence on this Earth is that of illness; that something is attacking a person’s body. They neither consented to this, nor did (in most cases) they ask for it. It just… happens. And it’s not fair.

It’s not fair that cells can go haywire and grow cancerous, and that some forms of cancer are treatable, and others aren’t. It’s not fair that our hearts, lungs, livers, and other organs can become useless. And it’s not fair that sometimes our minds, to varying degrees, become unhinged, not allowing us to perceive the world as it is, or as it should be.

Fortunately for the survival of our species, we have been given the ability to cure ourselves; to develop practices, medicines, procedures and treatments to eliminate diseases from the body. We were even given a natural ability to fight intrusions. That immune system is always active, always heading off disaster every second of every day.

The greatest unfairness, I believe, is when that immune system turns against you. That is Lupus. It’s like a police force or army suddenly turning against a population, or when we find one of our politicians engaged in corruption. It is utterly unfair when this protective system turns on the protected. It’s one of those things that you can’t help, you can’t avoid, and you never know if or when it will manifest.

I see this every day in Lara (@brdwychick). The constant battle over whether to alter her life to fit the boundaries that her Lupus creates, limiting her ability to live her life to the fullest, or to fight it tooth and nail, not knowing how much more damage the exertion of life will cause. Right now, one of her battles is which medication to take on which day because she doesn’t have enough to last until my medical benefits start. Every day, she has to chose where to hurt. It’s unfair to her, unfair to me, and unfair to our kids.

I know I have my own medical issues, and I deal with them in my own way as best I can, and they are more or less manageable. I can’t begin to imagine how it would feel to know my whole body is haywire, attacking itself, and there’s nothing I can do about it.

I wish I could fight the battle for her, but I can’t. But I can support research into new treatments, and I can work to improve awareness of the disease, to that more people with it can be diagnosed and treated as well. I hope everyone does the same, for whatever cause they believe in.

Posted in Family, Health | 2 Comments »

Three kids…arriving

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009

As I write this, my in-laws are driving my kids over the Verrazano bridge. To Long Islanders living out in Suffolk County, it’s a moment of “Oh, I’m almost home…but I still have to go through Jamaica, Rockville Center, Baldwin, Freeport, Merrick, Bellmore, Wantaugh, Seaford, Massapequa, Massapequa Park, Amityville, Copague, Lindenhurst, Babylon, and Bay Shore before I get to Islip.”

To a couple of Okies and three kids, two of which have only been out of Hawaii for a few weeks, and all of whom have been traveling for the last three days, it’s “We’re almost there!”

I can’t wait to see my babies again. Then all that’s left is to get Cody out of Hawaii.

In other news, Lara and I spent about 10 minutes walking, 2.5 hours on trains, and a ten minute cab ride to Edison, NJ, to pick up our truck. Then, we drove three hours back. It sucks driving from NJ to LI during rush hour. It sucks driving from NJ to LI in a snowstorm. It sucks a LOT to be driving from NJ to LI in a snowstorm during rush hour.

Speaking of which: When there’s an onramp that’s backed up and you’re in slow-moving traffic, what’s the optimal method of joining the two traffic streams together? Is it:

  1. To allow only the existing highway stream go: everyone else can go fuck themselves
  2. To only allow the oncoming stream to go: everyone else can go fuck themselves
  3. To allow one from each stream to go at a time, creating a smooth “zipper” effect
  4. To try to force yourself into the highway stream when you see someone allow the car in front of you in

I vote for #3. It’s nice when it happens. I do everything I can to allow it to happen.

Unfortunately, being a nice guy usually results in #4 happening, as it did today. I let someone in a small car into my highway stream. Instead of backing off, the guy in the F150 behind him just kept going, I can only assume he was assuming that I’d relent and let him in.

It wasn’t until we were about to either trade paint or have me go into the next lane that I finally hit the brakes and let him in, but not without a flurry of screaming, honking and a few middle fingers. Normally, it would just end there.

I don’t know WHAT this guy was thinking, but he then stops under an overpass and tries to wave me past. I just shoo him on, which after about 20 seconds, he does. However, when we get out from under the overpass, he pulls his truck off to the median and waves me past again. I don’t know what was up there. Maybe he genuinely felt guilty about what happened earlier. Maybe he was trying to cause a problem. I don’t know. But I decided it was probably a good idea to just do as he said. So I blew past him. A minute later, I heard a honk, and he’s next to me, waving his arms and talking. I think he might have even been smiling. All the windows were closed, so I didn’t catch what he said. I really didn’t care either. I was over it. I just kept driving. He then sped ahead never to be seen again.

Thinking back on this, I came to a realization. Neither of us were right. He shouldn’t have tried to wedge in, and I probably should have just let him, in the interest of rush-hour-snowstorm traffic safety.

What happened was two stubbron New Yorkers acted like two stubbron New Yorkers. It’s kind of like an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object.

Posted in Fail, Family, Health, Life, Navy, New York, Traffic | No Comments »

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